Signs of Life

[spnsummer_mod]

Title: Signs of Life
Author: pecansoda
Recipient: astri13
Rating: PG-13
Author's notes: For the prompt: Sam as the older, more protective brother. ~2,500 words. Thanks and much love to the amazing H., who was both kind and patient enough to beta this. I hope it’s okay! :)
Summary: AU. "This wouldn’t happen with Dad," Dean says, sullen, as Sam pops the hood on the

Comments

[kimonkey7]

Wow. This is just...lyrical. So much pretty that I couldn't cut and paste it all. It's gauzy and gossamer in a way that's almost dream-like. Probably the perfect way to imagine this AU that holds a different kind of peace for our boys, if that makes any sense.

Wonderfully done. Thank you.

[musesfool]

This is beautifully written.

[kjfri]

I think you broke my brain. Amazing.

[tabaqui]

Ah, man. Just lovely. Heartbreaking and bitter and *good*.

Dean’s at that awkward stage, gangly limbs and two left feet: he’ll be tall, but Sam’s not sure how tall yet. He’ll fill out in the next handful of years, muscle to balance out the height. Now Dean’s just a jumble of limbs and sharp elbows, face that he hasn’t grown into scrunched in pain, lips peeled back from his teeth, sharp and white; the last of his baby teeth gone years ago.

That's gorgeous, that is. And Sam, eighteen and getting them a house, a place - taking care...
*sniffle*

Just good stuff.

[astri13]

Wow. This has just such a gorgeous atmospheric feel to it. You truly have a way with words. And despite their roles being swapped, the characters stayed very much them. The protective response to the "triggering" event was just so Sam-like and much different from something Dean would have done there.

Thank you so much. *waits impatiently for author reveal so I can thank you again "in person" :)*

[pecansoda]

Ah, I'm so glad you liked it! I'd originally run with the Henricksen prompt, but that turned into a several thousand word angst fest and ultimately ended up so bleak that I had to scrap it entirely, so I'm really relieved that you liked thi

[pecansoda]

....and LJ has apparently decided to eat half my comment. *facepalm*

The gist of it being that I'm really glad they came across as believable despite the swap, because that was something that I definitely worried about! :D Thank you so much for the kind words, I was nervous about whether you would like this or not! ♥

[astri13]

Now, once more mano-a-mano. :) I loved this. And I consider this the hardest of my prompts to take on because their personalities are so defined by the status as older/younger brother that it would be so hard to keep the core of them alive and swap. So absolute kudos.